Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-03-18
INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS.
All Labor Il Entitled TO the Protection of
the Law.
CbIcoUO Harold

this Law
Chicago Herald.
A fundamental and mschievous error
made by members of the Knights of Labor
lies in the claim which is sought to be en-
forced by terrorism that a WOrkingmar
not member Of that organization has nc
rights under the law and shall not be per
mitted to carry out any contract he may
choose to make for his own labor If that
contract places him ct bench which 8
knight Of Labor has vacated. There is
colossal impudence in such claim; it is
grotesquely egOtstical and when asserted
with force and arms justihes the calling
out of every agency possessed bylawfully
organized communities to protect the
rights of individuals from invasion by
such labor organizations.
All labor Is not organized. There. are
tens OF thousands of men who do not care
to surrender their individuality into the
keeping of a committee, who, even if
they seek to act for the best interests %
all, cannot possibly be so good q Judge
of mans needs and desires as he him
self. Native independence of mind, edu-
Gated or other, revOlts against the tyTan-
ny of government by committee so absO-
lutte that, though man need the reward
of daily toll to provide shoes for
his children, or comforts for the
wife who may be in travail the
next week, or make up payment
upon the homestead which he has man
fully struggled to possess, he shall not
take heed of these, but upon the mere
nod of q man whom he knows only by
name, and who will never know him even
by name, shall throw his tools in a corner
and walk out. The knight has thus sur
rendered his individuality. He takes the
chance that his committeeman may be
using him in what to him is a matter of
life and death as q mere cats paw to at
tam some end beneficial to the committee
man. He lspses into idleneSs which he
cannot change without an order from that
tyranny his own suffrage has set up, and,
unless he have Cl9ar sense Of right and
wrong and the moral stamina to bear him
self without reprOach, he will speedily
find himself personally an assailant of
men who with absolute right have taken
the place he has vacated
+ Labor organizations striving by lawful
means to attain the best possible reward
under the happiest possible conditions
are proper and desirable But men who
decline to Join them must not therefore
be deprived of the chance of existence
and the protection of the law morgan
lied labor night seem TO be entitled to a
tenderer care from society than banded
labor. The individual must work out his
own maintenance. If he strikes no
powerful organization promises to
maintain him in idleness. Whatever
his hand fndeth to do he must
do with his might, for the night
cometh when no man can labor He
will be called "scab" by men who are
eating the substance of their brethren
laborlng elsewhere; he may be waylsid
and beaten by ruffians, but under the in
eXOrable law Of nature he is compelled to
earn his daily bread, and in the doing it
he has no protector but the law. The
proposition found practically in the atti-
tude of certain Knights of Labor, that
because he is not one of them he shall not
enjoy that protection, is monstrousIy ab-
Surd
The elemental maxim that all labor is
entitled TO the protection of law organ
lied labor would amend to read No labor
is entitled to the protection of law unless
it Is banded in secret organization.